Why Kindness is the Children’s Word of the Year
Did you know that children get to choose a word of the year? More than 6,000 children, aged six to 14, participated in choosing the Children’s Word of the Year for 2024, reported the BBC.
The vote which was conducted by the Oxford University Press (OUP) allowed the children to pick three words and then a smaller group picked the word of the year. Kindness follows climate change in 2023 and queen in 2022 in memory of Queen Elizabeth II.
Choosing positivity
In a world where words like sigma, skibbidy and slay are now the new normal when it comes to vocabulary (at least when talking slang), perhaps you might not have predicted a word as valuable and positive as kindness to be chosen for the past year.
Thankfully, it seems like children’s hearts and souls are still intact and society still values bringing people together and doing good deeds for others.
Andrea Quincey, a director at OUP told the BBC, “We know from previous years that young people are very conscious of the big issues that can divide us as a society and attuned to the important role which language can play in bringing people together.
“It tells us that empathy and tolerance and the language we use matter, and that kindness is not only a solution to so many problems but is something everyone and anyone can do to make a difference.”
There is still empathy and tolerance, and you can take great joy in that. Positive News reports that the word choice reflects the awareness children have nowadays on mental health and on current affairs. It seems like despite all the noise and challenges kids face each day, they are getting positive and kind role models, and are also absorbing meaningful values.
Great words for 2024
The runner up for Children’s Word of the Year was artificial intelligence. This perhaps conveys the focus given to the development of technology, to creativity and to a solution-based world, all of which is also very positive. There is still so much hope for the world and for the younger generations!
One of the children who voted for the word of the year explained “that you never truly know what someone else is going through, so it is important to be kind to everyone you meet. You also never know how much your kindness could help someone.”
The word of the year seems to also speak of the way children are choosing to look at things. Two people can be in the same situation or be looking at the same thing and see things differently, experience it differently and feel different emotions.
The fact that children are choosing kindness is not only beautiful, but inspiring as well. There is so much to learn from the young people that surround you.
